4 Ways to Set Your Ecommerce Business Apart From the Competition
1. Build Your Story
Everybody loves a good story.
When we listen to one, it takes us to another place in our minds. We pay more attention to them because they speak to our creative selves and take us on a journey. They linger longer in our minds because of the connection they create within us.
We hear not just words, but the emotions behind the words. We become a part of someone else’s human experience and it resonates within us.
Yes, telling a good story creates a bond between the storyteller and the one hearing the story. As an entrepreneur, you have a unique story to tell.
You live it and breathe it everyday. You might not think anybody outside of your immediate circle cares about that story, but it is your singular business adventure that sets you apart from everyone else. It is the reason you help nurture your product to market. It is your business thumbprint!
2. Connect in Authentic Ways
You may be at a place in your development cycle where you are seeking new ways to connect to your audience and reach them in authentic ways. One of the basic tenets of good storytelling is to write what you know.
You were infected with a bug that drove you to bring your product to market amidst all the obstacles that worked to prevent it from becoming a reality. Now that you have scaled those seemingly impossible mountains that stood in your way, don’t you have a story to tell that is as compelling as any work of fiction?
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3. Drive Customers to Purchase
It is your very human journey that drives the decision-making you encounter every day as you find new ways to connect with your buying audience. It is this same human journey that drives buyers in making their purchasing decisions.
As you seek, through eCommerce, to harness the power of the Internet to drive greater sales and reach these customers, your story will differentiate you from other and give your buyers a sense of connection with your brand.
4. Dramatically Improve Conversion Rates
Because it is being delivered through your website, the storytelling isn’t just about words either. Telling your brand’s story through every element of your site creates an indelible image of who you are and why your customer belongs there. This creates an immersive experience for your shopper and dramatically improves conversion rates. A site that takes branding to this level of detail sees conversion rates improve because your shopper knows who you are and can form a meaningful connection with you.
Where to Begin
So, how do you find your story?
The best place to start is to look to your origins. What was it that made you think that what you had to offer the world was something they would want to buy? Was it the uniqueness of the product itself? Was it the way you sold it or the target market that you thought was under-represented? Was it a cost advantage?
Behind it all was a genesis moment where you saw a need that wasn’t being filled in quite the same way as what was already out there. Call it your unique value proposition or even just a gut feeling that the world wanted what you had to offer. What started it and the part you are playing to raise it to be a vibrant, worthwhile part of society is compelling and needs to be properly expressed.
Your company’s voice needs to be heard.
Take the time to jot down the words that come from this exercise. It can be a narrative or just bullet points. Pepper it with adjectives and verbs that paint a picture of your voyage. Because that is what a good story does…it paints a picture in our minds that we connect with.
Once that story is uncovered, it can be woven into every element of your web design, delivering a superior user experience/user interface that is cohesive and personal.
Layer that with an inbound marketing strategy that is attuned to your business thumbprint and you bring people that are looking for what you have to offer. They will feel a sense of belonging when they visit your site. Then, your story becomes a part of their story and that is no ending, but only the beginning.
